Page 99 of On The Edge

Just fucking mine.

Temporarily though, right? And why does that thought not hit as easily as it used to?

I distract myself knowing the scent of her arousal is still on my hand.

I like it that way.

She’s the only high I’ve ever chased that’s stronger than the track, and I’m not sure what to do about that. Is it only because she comes without expectations? Or is it because she’s Maddix? A woman I’ve watched in a short time step into her own in so many fucking ways that it makes her even hotter?

“You lucked out with that one,” Zane Phillips, entrepreneurial Australian billionaire, says with a nudge. “I looked at my now wife that way. Still do.”

I chuckle and hold my drink up. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now.”

He shrugs. “One minute it’s one-night stands and moving on to the next woman as fast as you can. The next thing it’s staring at that one woman at parties and wondering how the fuck you fell so damn hard for her.”

I snort. “I’ll remember that,” I say and then promptly look away from her to sell the lie.

Zane throws his head back and laughs. “You’re so fucked, Navarro. So fucking fucked.”

It’s when I glance back toward Maddix though that I freeze, and then I’m on the move in a heartbeat. “Mamá?” I call out as Maddix looks over to me with wide eyes over this strange woman who is hugging her.

“Well, look at you. Perfect in every way just like I knew you’d be.”

“Mamá,” I say again. My throat feels like it’s beginning to close up.

She turns to face me, her hand still clasping Maddix’s as Maddix’s eyes dart back and forth in uncertainty. “Cariño,” she says holding her arm, bejeweled bangles clanking, out like I’m supposed to run into it.

And there she is. Genevieve Navarro. My mother. Owner of what looks like yet another facelift. Keeper of my dad’s heart and equally responsible party for his misery. Culprit of my abandonment issues and oblivious to the harm she’s done. Woman in a dream world, in a pretend life.

“I thought you were unable to make it tonight,” I say, avoiding her hug and stepping up to tuck Maddix underneath my arm and away from her.

Don’t touch what’s not yours, Mamá. That includes me.

“Oh, you know how it goes.” She flickers her fingers as if time and place is irrelevant. “I was on the way from Ibiza to the Seychelles and figured I’d stop here and see you, hijo.”

Bullshit. You stopped here because there were cameras and money. It had nothing to do with me. Never has. Everything else in life that gives you status is more important than us.

“You’ll be staying then?” I ask unenthusiastically.

Her smile falters as the truth fights to make it through. Of course not. Once the sparkle and limelight is gone, so is she. “Oh, Cruzie, you know how it is.”

“Don’t call me that,” I grit out between clenched teeth.

She laughs and rolls her eyes, turning her attention to Maddix, avoiding giving me an answer. So that means no, she won’t be staying in town longer than the next few hours.

Which I’m glad for. I don’t want to see her.

So why can’t she just fucking say no for once? Be truthful. Just fucking once.

“So this is the lovely Maddix?” She stares blatantly, and I can tell Maddix is caught between her manners and my obvious disdain for my mother.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she says.

“Oh, you’re sure to piss him off, aren’t you?” She turns to me as she chuckles. I know she’s referencing my father, but confusion blankets Maddix’s face. “Dominic always had to have a say in everything you do, and you bringing her here is your way of sticking it to him.”

“Eso es sufficiente,” I warn. That’s enough.

“Why? You don’t want her to know the truth?”